PTI
Mumbai, May 19
Mumbai Indians put up a superb all-round performance crushing Chennai Super Kings by 25 runs to enter the final of the eighth edition of Indian Premier League here on Tuesday.
En route their third entry to the summit round after 2010 and 2013, Mumbai Indians scored 187 for six largely due to the brilliant cameo from Kieron Pollard who smashed a 17-ball-41 on the platform laid by Lendl Simmons' 65 off 51 balls.
In reply, CSK's much vaunted line-up could muster only 162 in 19 overs as none of the top-order batsmen went onto play a match-winning knock.
Such was the domination by the home team that CSK never looked a part during better part of the match and ended second best in the process. But the five-time finalists and two-time champions will get another crack during the second Qualifier to be played in Mahendra Singh Dhoni's hometown Ranchi.The telling blow was dealt by Harbhajan Singh (2/26 in 4 overs), who removed the dangerous Suresh Raina (25) and skipper MS Dhoni (0) off successive deliveries to swing the match decisively in MI's favour. Lasith Malinga (3/23) and R Vinay Kumar (2/26) did play their part as MI have now won nine out of 11 matches.
Faf du Plessis (45) played well but just like Raina was deceived by slow nature of the pitch going for a big hit.
OPener Dwayne Smith (0) received a rough decision from umpire Richard Illingworth off Lasith Malinga's bowling and Mike Hussey (16) showed that he is still rusty having not played for better part last month and a half.
Dwayne Bravo (20) got a reprieve when Harbhajan dropped him off his own bowling to miss out on a third victim.
However the man from Jallandhar made a lot of difference during his four overs as he was slower through the air and tossing the ball up. One such tossed up delivery saw Raina failing to check his shot and offer a simple return catch.
Dhoni tried an ambitious sweep shot off the first delivery that was flighted on the off-middle channel and was caught plumb in-front. Bravo averted the hat-trick but could have been gone as he also was fooled by flight but Harbhajan messed it up big time. It didn't cost them much as a smart piece of work from Parthiv-Pollard duo saw Bravo heading back to pavilion. Once Bravo was back in the dug-out, CSK's chances were practically over.
Earlier, Simmons started in style with a well-crafted 65 while Pollard blasted 41 off 17 balls to finish with flourish as Mumbai Indians scored competitive 187 for six in 20 overs after opting to bat first.
Simmons, who notched up his fifth half century of the competition, struck five sixes and three fours in his 51-ball innings. Along with Parthiv Patel (35), Simmons provided a solid opening stand of 90 runs at nearly 9 runs an over before MI lost quick wickets between the 11th and 16th overs to be in some sort of bother at 139 for 4. It was then left to fellow Trinidadian Pollard to smash five huge sixes along with a boundary in just 17 balls to take MI closer to the 200-run mark.
For league's table toppers CSK, Dwayne Bravo was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3 for 40 and was mainly responsible for MI not reaching a bigger score after their splendid beginning. Ashish Nehra was fairly economical with 1 for 28 from four overs.
Opting to bat first, MI were again given a sound start by the right-left combine of Simmons and Patel who first raised 48 by the end of six-over Powerplay.
CSK used off-spinner R Ashwin to open the bowling with left arm seam bowler Ashish Nehra and had things under control in the first four overs.
However, Simmons carted Ashwin in his third over, beyond the straight field and then over the mid-wicket region for two sixes. Simmons, who has been in fine form from the time he came in as replacement for the injured Aaron Finch, then struck a third six ? onto the sight screen ? off Nehra in the last over of play.
And when Ravindra Jadeja came to bowl the 8th over, the West Indian smacked him over long on for another six to keep the run-rate hovering around the eight-run mark.
Left-handed Patel, kept quiet at the other end, went after Pawan Negi by lashing a six over long on and then striking two more fours in the 9th over to increase MI?s run-rate.
Simmons completed his 5th half-century of the season off 38 balls studded with three fours and four sixes, in the tenth over at the end of which MI had advanced to 86 for no loss with Simmons on 51 and Patel on 32.
Dhoni summoned his 'Crisis Man' Bravo to stem the run flow and the ebullient West Indian all rounder clicked by having Patel caught at long on to reach a landmark of 100 IPL victims in his 89th IPL game overall.
Pollard then joined MI skipper Rohit Sharma and immediately started controlling the pace by clouting 2 sixes in one Negi over as the score leapt to 135 for 2 at the end of 15 overs. It was Pollard who kept hitting big shots as MI reached par score in the end.
